Post by MartinT on May 6, 2016 17:15:23 GMT
R Strauss - Also Sprach Zarathustra
The opening fanfare to Richard Strauss' tone poem Also Sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spake Zarathustra) is well known to us via the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, the Moon landing in 1969 and much incidental use. However, there is much more to this sumptuous composition than an organ-brass-fest rising to a rapid climax. The piece is written largely for strings and reinforces the widely accepted view that Strauss was a master orchestrator. Just listening to part one, after the fanfare, is a lesson in the utter beauty of massed strings when given free rein. A tone poem it may be, but you do not need to know Nietzsche's novel in order to appreciate it - I certainly don't. The second, harder gained, climax is worth waiting for and the whole piece is a joy to behold. I know of no other work that generates quite this emotion and sense of wonder and that probably explains why it has been a core part of my collection since my late teens.
Widely recorded, my favourite recording is that by Eugene Ormandy and The Philadelphia Orchestra on EMI (mine is a DMM LP - ASD 3897), recorded in 1979. The opening organ pedals are extremely potent, shaking the room and everything in it. The violins are sweet but the recording is 'hot' so everything needs to be just so for it to sound great. If you set the initial volume appropriate to just this side of world destruction, the following string-dominated passages will sound glorious.
Unfortunately, Spotify only has the opening fanfare by Ormandy.
This is the full version by Karajan, another fine performance.
The opening fanfare to Richard Strauss' tone poem Also Sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spake Zarathustra) is well known to us via the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, the Moon landing in 1969 and much incidental use. However, there is much more to this sumptuous composition than an organ-brass-fest rising to a rapid climax. The piece is written largely for strings and reinforces the widely accepted view that Strauss was a master orchestrator. Just listening to part one, after the fanfare, is a lesson in the utter beauty of massed strings when given free rein. A tone poem it may be, but you do not need to know Nietzsche's novel in order to appreciate it - I certainly don't. The second, harder gained, climax is worth waiting for and the whole piece is a joy to behold. I know of no other work that generates quite this emotion and sense of wonder and that probably explains why it has been a core part of my collection since my late teens.
Widely recorded, my favourite recording is that by Eugene Ormandy and The Philadelphia Orchestra on EMI (mine is a DMM LP - ASD 3897), recorded in 1979. The opening organ pedals are extremely potent, shaking the room and everything in it. The violins are sweet but the recording is 'hot' so everything needs to be just so for it to sound great. If you set the initial volume appropriate to just this side of world destruction, the following string-dominated passages will sound glorious.
Unfortunately, Spotify only has the opening fanfare by Ormandy.
This is the full version by Karajan, another fine performance.
